The intro to which Black Album song interpolates Leonard Bernstein's melody from West Side Story?
Answer
Don't Tread on Me
The intro to “Don't Tread on Me” interpolates Leonard Bernstein's melody from West Side Story.
The borrowed melody comes from “America,” a song Bernstein composed for the 1957 musical West Side Story. Metallica incorporated the recognizable figure into the opening of “Don't Tread on Me,” creating a brief connection between a classic Broadway work and a heavy-metal album.
“Don't Tread on Me” is the ninth track on Metallica. Its title refers to the Gadsden flag motto, and the song's lyrics use patriotic and defensive imagery rather than the nightmare themes of “Enter Sandman” or the introspection of “Nothing Else Matters.”
The song is also easy to misclassify in discussions of the album's singles. It received promotional rock-radio attention, but it was not one of the five commercial singles released from the record.